Category: Offline to Online Marketing

With the onslaught of technological changes it seems that more and more companies are vearing away from print and paper marketing, yet there is s segment of the business populace that still desires to know how to combine offline with online marketing.

Last summer I stopped by a higher end lake side resort to investigate and find out more about the place and what it has to offer. As I approached the front desk there was not a shread of paper in sight. So I asked the front desk guy about the resort and he just redirected me to their website.

But all I left, disappointed, with only access to their online website.

The bottom line here is that the resort could have captured me several ways seeing that at the time I was a very warm prospect. And had they used printed marketing materials and combined them with online web properties just think of all the possibilities!

How could they combine their offline with their online marketing?

Number One: Had they trained their front desk people to just for my information they could add me into their database manually and then follow up later.

Number Two: They could easily ask for my phone number and have the sales office contact me.

Number Three: They could easily have had a classy, quality, simple brochure with a picture, attraction oriented copy, and contact info.

Number Four: They could provide an oversized contact card with QR code and shortened URL that provide the gateway to the web.

Number Five: They could have a POP sign with the Attraction oriented copy, QR code and shortened URL.

Any one or all of these methods would work for this resort and many a business I run into these days.

It seems that some businesses, like the above mentioned resort have gotten it into their heads that the web is the only way to market their business. They seem to think that since they are so booked up and that their $300 per night rates during peak season can mean that they can forego paper and print altogether.

Yes, the web is growing faster than ever before, but we are not at the point where we can totally get rid of POP and POS based printed marketing materials. Especially when it comes to live on-location interaction with human beings.

What we need to do as small business owners and managers is to attract and connect with our target market on a continual basis. And do so in ways that the people we desire to bring into our world will desire to connect with us due to the materails we provide and manner in which we conduct ourselves.

We as a society still utilize paper. Now I’m not saying that we should step back and intitiate paper and print campaigns. I’m just conveying that for the time being printed marketing materials still have a place in certain businesses and organizations.

The question is this…

Are you involved in one of those organizations and have you been missing opportunities to grow your business? If so, reconsider and learn how to combine offline with online marketing by testing with printed marketing materials. This way you can attract more customers and keep your business moving forward.

Until next time,

Dave KrygierPublisher

PS – Need help with figuring out how to combine offline with online marketing? SBM may have a solution, or two or three…